Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy explore the catastrophic health risks of alcohol abuse

It’s been a long, stressful day at the office, and for many people this means one thing – having a drink to ‘unwind’. Maybe a few pints at the pub with work mates is appealing after a gruelling day, or perhaps a few glasses of wine in the evening each night with a meal is how others choose to relax.

One or two drinks each evening may seem innocent enough and simply a customary part of one’s evening. After all, there is no harm in kicking back with a few beers each night after work right? Wrong…

There are multiple hidden dangers of long-term alcohol consumption, and what seems like a few harmless drinks every night is actually disastrous for the body – both inside and out.

Everybody knows about the staggering number calories contained in most alcoholic drinks. Simply put, those who consume alcohol are consuming empty calories with no nutritional value.

It may be shocking to learn that just a single glass of wine contains around the same number of calories contained in four cookies, and a pint of lager is roughly as calorie-laden as a slice of pizza.
For the heavier drinkers, it will be frightening to learn that the NHS Livewell website’s alcohol page states that just drinking five pints of lager each week can tally up to 44,200kcal over the course of a year – or eating about 221 doughnuts. This may go some way to explaining Homer Simpson’s rotund belly. After all, the Springfield native has a penchant for both beer and doughnuts!

It is suddenly easier to understand the role alcohol plays in the increasingly problematic UK obesity crisis and why the health problems linked to being overweight or obese are costing the NHS over £5 billion each and every year.

And alcohol plays a part in helping people to easily gain weight with its calorific nature. Maybe lager isn’t your preferred choice of tipple and surely wine is kinder on the waistline? Wrong again! Just two large glasses of white wine takes up about fifth of the recommended daily calorie intake for a woman. That could force people into a rethink before opening that second bottle of wine in the future.
In addition, alcohol is fat-sparing. This means that the body will look to burn it for its fuel source before fat. This means when alcohol is drank to excess of the body’s daily energy requirements, it suddenly becomes much more difficult for the body to burn up fat. Thus, more fat is stored, and weight is gained.

As well as weight gain, alcohol – in particularly alcohol abuse – is associated with a whole host of serious health problems. The NHS Change 4 Life’s alcohol’s hidden harms page provides both an excellent, and alarming list of health risks associated with alcohol.

For instance, regularly consuming alcohol above the lower risk guidelines can lead to cancers of the throat, oesophagus or larynx, breast cancer in women, high blood pressure, heart attack, a stroke, liver disease such as cirrhosis and liver cancer, pancreatitis and impaired fertility.

The impact to health extends beyond the deadly diseases. ‘Brewers droop’ may be a term laughed off amongst friends, as purely an isolated occurrence of male impotence from the result of drinking too much. However, alcohol usually always results in sexual problems in a relationship. For men, this equates to difficulty getting and sustaining an erection – even when sober. This is because short and long term of drinking too much alcohol can damage the body’s tissues. Most commonly affected are those in the brain, liver and nervous system, and often leaving the male with erectile dysfunction.
Male impotence can be disastrous for relationships and leave the man with a huge loss of self-esteem, confidence and can even lead to anxiety and depression. Depressed people often turn to alcohol to cope, but this is completely inadvisable.

Not only is alcohol a depressant, meaning you are probably going to end up more miserable than you started off, but then the potential weight gain and sexual dysfunction will only further increase the mental anxieties. Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy provide treatments for both weight gain (Xenical, XLS-Medical), and erectile dysfunction (Generic Sildenafil, Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, Vitaros Cream, etc.) will can help to regain confidence in your social and private life.

The good news is there are many wonderful benefits to reap from cutting down on alcohol intake. Reducing – or even giving up altogether – alcohol will leave the skin looking clearer, suddenly those previously waking up tired every day may have more energy, and there is the financial aspect of course.

Alcoholic drinks can be incredibly expensive and by cutting down, this will save possibly hundreds of pounds each year. The most important reason for cutting back on the booze is obviously the major health benefits to be had, but surely the thought of being able to treat yourself to things that were previously unaffordable is tempting enough to cut back or even banish the booze completely!

Change4Life aims to get the nation happier and healthier!

Obesity in the UK is a major growing health concern and is consistently found to be one of the leading causes of preventable death in Britain. In 2007 Forbes listed the UK as number 28 in the fattest countries in the world and other estimates predict that half the population could be obese by the year 2050.

Earlier this year, statistics were released that show the total proportion of people in areas across England are either overweight or obese, and it is an alarming similar trend around the country:

By region

1. North-east (68%)
2. North-west (66%)
3. West Midlands (65.7%)
4. East Midlands (65.6%)
5. Yorkshire and the Humber (65.4%)
6. East of England (65.1%)
7. South-east (63.1%)
8. South-west (62.7%)
9. London (57.3%)

Clearly the problem of managing the nation’s weight is something that needs to be tackled in the current day and not only taken seriously 36 years into the future.

Fortunately the government and the NHS are at the forefront of such measures and there are a number of initiatives that aim to promote healthy lifestyle changes to be sustained in the long-term for you and your children. One of these is Change4Life , an England and Wales public health programme ran by the Department of Health that encourages people to adhere to six healthy lifestyle changes:

• 5 A Day – Advice on how to achieve the recommended 5 daily portions of fruit and vegetables.
• Watch the salt– How to cut down on salt intake and keep it under 6g per day for adults.
• Cut back fat – Information about primarily the saturated fat in foods and how to cut down. It is worth remembering the average male should not consume over 30g of saturated fat per day, whilst it is just 20g of saturated fat per day for women.
• Sugar swaps– Information about sugar in foods and healthier alternatives.
• Choose less booze – Advice on how adults can meet the government lower-risk guidelines, with a free downloadable app to track your drinking.
• Get going every day – The importance of an active lifestyle and how both children and adults can keep active easily and inexpensively.

Those wanting to get involved with Change4Life will receive plenty of useful information, recipes, tools, tips, and games for the kids. After you have registered you will also get a free welcome pack – one for the whole family, or one just for you.

For those unsure where their local groups or clubs are for fun activities that will keep you fit and healthy, there is an excellent facility for finding such activities on the Change4Life website. Here you can tick what specific interests you want to get involved in, such as Adventure/Outdoor (e.g. Archery, Cycling & more) or Watersports (e.g. Canoeing, Diving & more) within a specified distance and the search results will provide an A-Z list of nearby venues to get active.

The NHS Choices website also offer a fantastic comprehensive A-Z guide to common health topics, such as weight loss, within the Live Well area of the website.

In the weight loss area of the NHS Live Well website, you can find information about the many different diet plans out there, such as the 5:2 diet and the Paleo diet, there are tips on how to understand food labels in order to make healthier choices when shopping, a list of the worst culprits for added sugar in our diet and there is also an interactive body mass index (BMI) tool to see if you are a health weight for your height. Those wanting to lose weight can also sign up for free email support and help stay motivated in their goals.

Brits are drinking 40% more alcohol than they realise

England’s most senior doctor today claimed that regular drinkers are under a false pretence about their drinking levels with many so-called ‘moderate’ drinkers grossly underestimating their daily drinking levels – sometimes by as much as 40%.

Moreover, many of these apparent moderate drinkers are consistently exceeding official guidance that limits men to three to four units of alcohol (equivalent to a pint and a half of 4% beer) and two to three units for women (equivalent to a 175ml glass of wine per).

The latest potentially concerning insight into the nation’s drinking culture comes in the form of study conducted by the Department of Health (DoH) which is part of their ‘Change4Life’ TV advertisement campaign. It would seem that the results go some way to showing that the British public are underestimating the quantity and frequency at which they consume alcohol.

The news comes less than three months after it emerged that Prime Minister David Cameron is formulating plans to introduce  a 45p minimum price per unit to try and put a stop to the weekend binge drinking that is plaguing town centres across the country and also to reduce alcohol-related illnesses. Back in November, the Home Office claimed that this minimum price of 45p for a unit will slash the annual £42bn spent on alcoholic drinks in England and Wales by over 3%, helping to reduce crime and avoid 714 alcohol-related deaths each year.

As part of the DoH study into typical drinking habits, 19 people aged between 35 and 55 were recruited and asked to report their drink intake over a two week period, describing what kind of drinker they would class themselves as.

According to the information in their drinks diary, it was calculated that the individuals in the study were drinking on average the equivalent of an extra-large glass of wine each day – 40% more than they realised they were drinking.

More findings from the study show that roughly 80% of those that drink too much are indeed aware of the risks to their health yet think of themselves as merely a moderate drinker. In addition, 60% of these ‘moderate’ drinkers do not plan to reduce their alcohol intake at any point in the future.

However, in the second phase of the research, the participants were actually instructed to reduce their alcohol intake and were given simple bits of advice on how best to go about this. The tips provided included adding more of the ‘mixer’ to drinks and ditching alcoholic drinks in favour of soft drinks. Participants were also advised to include alcohol-free days if they would usually drink every day, stop drinking at home prior to going out anywhere, use smaller glasses for drinks and to stick to low-alcohol or alcohol-free drinks.

After the second phase, it was discovered that they had managed to cut alcohol consumption by over a third. The participants had also taken in on average 1,658 less calories each week and managed to pocket an extra £33.35 a week that they wouldn’t have usually (equivalent to £1,730 a year).

Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England, said: “I understand that people enjoy having a glass of wine or beer to unwind at the end of a busy day – but these drinks stack up and can increase your risk of high blood pressure, cancer or liver disease. The alcohol guidelines recommend that men should not regularly drink more than three to four units a day and women should not regularly drink more than two to three units a day. The Change4Life campaign aims to help and encourage people to check how much they are drinking using the Drinks Checker app or online and if they find they are drinking over the guidelines, provide helpful tips and advice to cut down. Cutting back your drinking can reduce your health risks, reduce your calorie intake, help you sleep better and boost your energy.”